Ruth Gresser: The Divine Art of Pizza - Metro Weekly: August 22, 2019

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AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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August 22, 2019

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CONTENTS

IN ON THE ACT

Alan Sharpe’s LGBTQ+ plays add diversity to an already diverse lineup at Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival.

By André Hereford

THE DIVINE ART OF PIZZA

When Ruth Gresser opened Pizzeria Paradiso, she pioneered gourmet pizza in D.C., and served it with a side of community spirit.

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Volume 26 Issue 16

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Interview by Doug Rule Photography by Todd Franson

FRAYED CONNECTIONS Two albums off a hiatus, Sleater-Kinney turns their sound upside-down with help from St. Vincent.

By Sean Maunier

SPOTLIGHT: ASSASSINS p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 THE FEED: ENDORSING HATE p.16 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p.18 TELEVISION: HALSTON p.27 FILM: READY OR NOT p.28 NIGHTLIFE: DIRTY GOOSE’S THIRD ANNIVERSARY p.31 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.32 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.33 LAST WORD p.38 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 25 Years Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrator Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Bailey Vogt, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Lombardi’s Cover Photography Todd G. Franson Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2019 Jansi LLC.

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AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Spotlight

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Assassins

OR HIS NEW PRODUCTION OF ASSASSINS, ERIC Schaeffer cast his gaze in the direction of Ford’s Theatre, the historic venue where John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

“The show is set in a dilapidated version of Ford's,” Schaeffer says of the inspired setting, designed by James Kronzer. “The Lincoln box is all broken apart — it's just the old backstage of a theater wall. Everything happens within that world and it's kind of really hauntingly beautiful.”

This is the third time in Signature’s thirty-year history that it has produced the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman Tonywinning show, a musical examination of the people who killed — or attempted to kill — various U.S. Presidents. It’s a bold, daring, brilliant work, one Schaeffer felt was important to reexamine in our country’s current climate.

“There's a line that Booth sings in the ‘Ballad of Booth’ that just sticks out to me,” he says. “He sings the country is not what it was. It just resonates because our country obviously is not what it was. Another big number that resonates is ‘Another National Anthem,’ where [the assassins] sing ‘We're the ones who can't get into the ballpark, the ones that are left outside.’ I think that can be interpreted in so many ways.

“When we did it originally in 1992,” he continues, “Sondheim

hadn't written the new song, ‘Something Just Broke,’ that comes after the Kennedy assassination. And that song really talks about the country. It's five people singing their viewpoint of what one person can do to terrorize the country and how it is a mark that they will remember forever at that time, at that moment. The thing that resonates so much about that is that it's not just about presidential assassins at that moment — it's about every shooting in America that goes through your mind. I mean, it's just kind of unbelievable in that way.”

Schaeffer never considered canceling the show after the recent shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.

“It's not going to do anyone any good to erase history,” he says.

“By doing that, we're not going to learn from any of the mistakes that were made and how to change it.... John Weidman's book to the show is so smart. If anything, I think it's typical Sondheim that he was so far ahead of his time when he wrote this that it feels fresh and pertinent today just as it did in the early ’90s.

“If some people find it controversial, it's because they don't really understand what the show is about. It's never glorifying these people. It's making you see and try to understand why someone would do an act that would make the country totally seal, shut down, locked, and having something taken away.”

—Randy Shulman

Assassins runs through Sept. 29 in Signature’s MAX Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., in Arlington.

Call 703-820-9771 or visit www.sigtheatre.org.

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Spotlight IMPROVAPALOOZA 2019

Washington Improv Theater presents a five-day festival of experimental improv featuring nearly 200 shows, ranging from one-of-a-kind experimental performances to annual favorites. Presented at the Source on 14th Street, Improvapalooza features nonstop programming and festival-style seating allowing patrons to enter and exit the theater between acts. Performances continue Thursday, Aug. 22, and Friday, Aug. 23, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 24, at noon and 6 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 25, at 6 p.m. 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $15 in advance, or $20 at the door, or $35 for an All-Palooza Pass. Call 202-204-7741 or visit www.witdc.org.

CYRUS CHESTNUT

“The best jazz pianist of his generation,” Time music critic Josh Tyrangiel has said of about Baltimore’s versatile virtuoso, who two decades ago portrayed a Count Basie-inspired pianist in Robert Altman’s Kansas City.

He returns to D.C.’s leading jazz venue for a run of shows to help close out the summer.

Thursday, Aug. 22, through Sunday, Aug. 25, at 8 and 10 p.m.

Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Tickets are $30 to $35, plus $12 minimum purchase. Call 202-337-4141 or visit www.bluesalley.com.

PENTATONIX

“The World’s Biggest A Cappella Act,” according to Forbes, Pentatonix returns to the area as part of this year’s World Tour of stadiums. Two of the group’s five members identify as LGBTQ — tenor Mitch Grassi and baritone Scott Hoying, who also perform as the musical comedy duo Superfruit — yet the concert’s gay appeal extends beyond them. Special guest Rachel Platten opens the show with a bang by performing her rousing hit “Fight Song.” Monday, Aug. 26. Gates at 6 p.m.

Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md. Tickets are $29.50 to $129.50. Call 800-551-SEAT or visit www.merriweathermusic.com.

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AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Out On The Town

DC OUT, FEATURING TY HERNDON

Launched in 2016 by John Lindo and Jim Coakley, with a headline performance by The Voice’s Billy Gilman, this Labor Day Weekend LGBTQ social dance mainstay returns with a headline performance by Herndon, the veteran Grammy-nominated and Dove-winning recording artist who came out in 2014, becoming the first major gay male country star. Set for Sunday, Sept. 1, at 9 p.m., Herndon will perform with musical accompaniment as part of the capstone party Farewell Dance: Blue and White Cowboy also featuring DC Out DJs including Louis St. George. Festival-goers are encouraged to don elegant or casual blue-and-white garb for a party also offering them a chance to demonstrate the moves they learned and practiced in the classes and workshops to be offered at the three-day “crossover swing, country, and line event.” Held in the ballrooms of the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, DC Out kicks off Thursday, Aug. 29, with an evening dance, with a Blues & Soul party led by DJ John Festa set for Friday, Aug. 30, and the Sparkles, Sequins and Glam evening dance on Saturday, Sept. 1. 400 New Jersey Ave. NW. Tickets to the Sunday concert and dance are $30, or $65 as part of an Individual Day Pass, or $119 for a Full Weekend Pass. Visit www.dc-out.com for more details and a complete lineup of dance instructors.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM ANGEL HAS FALLEN

Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) just can’t catch a break. First, he had to defend the president (Aaron Eckhart) against an attack on the White House in Olympus Has Fallen, then against a massive attack on world leaders in London Has Fallen, and now he’s being framed for an assassination attempt against the new president (Morgan Freeman). And as long as the [Name] Has Fallen films continue to print money for Lionsgate, he won’t be getting an easy retirement any time soon. Opens Friday, Aug. 23. Area theaters. Visit www.fandango.com. (Rhuaridh Marr)

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AQUARELA

Water, or aqua, is the main character in director Victor Kossakovsky’s deeply cinematic journey capturing the many ways Earth’s most precious element takes shape as well as shapes us. Aquarela is intended primarily as a reminder that humans are no match for the sheer force and capricious will of water, an ominous reality given the way climate change is both increasing and intensifying such interactions. The documentary captures in often-shocking closeup and detail examples of water’s extreme power, from the drama of a melting icecap as it collapses and dissolves, to the sudden dangers posed by the churning seas of a tropical storm. Opens Friday, Aug. 23. Area theaters. Visit www.fandango.com.

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

BEFORE SUNRISE BEFORE SUNSET

As part of its Capital Classics series, Landmark’s West End Cinema returns the first two films in Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as two strangers who meet by chance on a train. In the 1995 original, the duo proceeds to spend one passionate night together in Vienna before going their separate ways.

“Can the greatest romance of your life last only one night?” read the tagline to Before Sunrise. Nine years later, the two unexpectedly find each other in Paris, leading to a new question: “What if you had a second chance with the one that got away?”

Before Sunrise is Wednesday, Aug. 28, while Before Sunset follows Wednesday, Sept. 4, with screening times both days at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Happy

hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 each. Call 202-534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

The AFI Silver Theatre co-presents a free summer outdoor film series at nearby Sonny’s Green, where patrons can bring blankets and low-rise chairs as well as their own food and beverages. The series concludes Friday, Aug. 30, with a 30th anniversary screening of “one of the most bodacious comedies of the 20th century,” and to help build anticipation for next year’s sequel Bill & Ted Face The Music. As stars Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves famously put it, party on, dudes!

The screening begins at sundown, around 8 p.m. Off the parking lot of the Blairs Shopping Center, 1290 East-West Highway. Call 301-4956720 or visit www.afi.com/Silver.

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

Considered one of cinema’s most magnificent and visually stunning achievements, David Lean’s 1962 masterpiece will be presented digitally in 4K from a meticulous restoration of the original negative. Based on the exploits of T.E. Lawrence during World War I as leader of the Arab revolt against the Turks, Peter O’Toole plays the title role with a supporting cast that includes Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, and Alec Guiness. The four-hour epic garnered seven Oscars, including best picture, director, cinematography, and score.

Sunday, Sept. 1, and Wednesday, Sept. 4, at 1 and 6 p.m. Various Regal venues, including Gallery Place (701 7th St. NW), Potomac Yards Stadium (3575 Jefferson Davis Highway), and Majestic Stadium (900 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring). Tickets are $12.50.

Visit www.fathomevents.com.

OMAR MIGUEL

LOONEY TUNES

IN ON THE ACT

Alan Sharpe’s LGBTQ+ plays add diversity to an already diverse lineup at Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival.

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HE PAGE-TO-STAGE FESTIVAL TURNS EIGHTEEN WITH A BANG-UP SLATE OF NEW, unproduced, or work-in-progress plays, presented as staged readings or open rehearsals by D.C.-area theatre companies. And the free-admission event — which fills the Kennedy Center over Labor Day weekend — offers several plays that will put LGBTQ characters and themes center stage.

Among the queer-themed work at the festival on Saturday, August 31, the Brave Soul Collective performs a selection of short pieces under the telling heading #BlackGayRage. On Monday, September 2, the Rainbow Theatre Project previews the company’s upcoming season opener Blue Camp with a reading of the Tim Caggiano and Jack Calvin Hanna drama about gay soldiers and criminals awaiting dishonorable discharge at the start of the Vietnam War. Also on that Monday, multidisciplinary arts collective Hue.Man.Ati performs a dramatic reading of Barry Moton’s Day Dream, inspired by the life of gay jazz composer-lyricist Billy Strayhorn.

The festival’s Saturday slate brings playwright and director Alan Sharpe’s work to the stage, courtesy of the actors of the African-American Collective Theatre (ACT), founded by Sharpe over four decades ago. Performing Come to Find Out, a collection of Sharpe’s short plays, ACT will mark its seventh year participating in Page-to-Stage. “Obviously it's been an experience that we enjoy and that has proven to be very helpful for us,” says Sharpe, who applauds the festival’s service to theatergoers, “in terms of giving them the chance to explore other types of theater, and it serves the companies because they get to widen and broaden their audience.”

ACT will greet that audience with a broad range of characters and subject matter, from two black prep school students finding common ground, to a cop and a trans woman confronting each other over Stonewall, to a pair of ’40s-era pullman porters putting their relationship on the line. Although diverse in scope, the plays share an underlying theme.

“The umbrella title for our program is, Come To Find Out, which means a lot of different things.

Certainly as a colloquialism, it expresses the idea of discovery, something that you didn't realize previously. I realized that it also means ‘come to find out’ in the sense of being out. How we each find our own path, take our own path to coming out, and recognizing and acknowledging who we are. This year's theme seems to play on that, the idea of discovery and particularly self-discovery.”

Whether on a quest to discover new talent, or just beat the heat, audiences will have to come to find out for themselves, over the jam-packed weekend, what other gems there are to be discovered at Page-to-Stage. —André Hereford The Page-to-Stage Festival runs Saturday, August 31 through Monday, September 2, at the Kennedy Center. Free. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

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AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Every Saturday and Sunday morning the remainder of the month, the AFI Silver Theatre screens a different 45-minute program featuring selections of Warner Bros.’ classic cartoons starring the Looney Tunes gang — Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Tweety, and more. The series continues with Program 5 this Saturday, Aug. 24, and Sunday, Aug. 25, at 11 a.m. 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $5.

Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/Silver.

SING-A-LONG SOUND OF MUSIC

Even if you’ve never been to a singa-long before, you know what it’s all about. It’s fun. And camp. And we’re betting you even know the words to all the songs from the classic movie musical, from “My Favorite Things” to “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” to “Edelweiss.” If you’re a bit rusty, though, rest assured the lyrics will be shown as part of the movie on Wolf Trap’s huge screen. The outing includes a Sound of Music-inspired costume contest prior to the screening — expect lots of Lederhosen and veils — plus, thankfully, a 15-minute intermission during Robert Wise’s nearly three-hour-long film.

Saturday, Aug. 24. Gates at 5:45 p.m. The Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $25 to $45. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www.wolftrap.org.

STAGE KENNEDY CENTER’S PAGE-TO-STAGE NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

More than 65 D.C.-area theater companies offer readings, workshop productions, open rehearsals, and previews of developing plays and musicals as part of this free event held over Labor Day week-

end. Participating theaters in the 18th annual event include Ford’s Theatre, The In Series, MetroStage, Mosaic Theater Company, Pinky Swear Productions, the LGBTQfocused Rainbow Theatre Project, Theatre Prometheus, the Welders playwriting collective, the black LGBTQ-focused African-American Collective Theater, the impressive Millennial-focused Monumental Theatre Company, and Huemanati Artist Collective, the latter presenting Day Dream, a work about pioneering jazz artist and historical LGBTQ figure Billy Strayhorn.

Other highlights include: Brave Soul Collective’s #BlackGayRage, a montage of performances celebrating the existence and illuminating the challenges of black LGBTQ people; Project 2020’s The Last Battle of the American Revolution, a medley of scenes from stage works celebrating and relating events from the struggle for women’s voting rights in the U.S.; and Voices Unbarred’s Dear America: A Disconnect Between Perception & Truth, an examination of the perceptions of inmates versus the reality with an eye toward brainstorming solutions to the issues raised. Festival begins Saturday, Aug. 30. To Monday, Sept.

2. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

THE WAR BOYS

Ally Theatre Company, focused on presenting works or partnering with organizations that acknowledge and confront systemic oppression in America, launches its third season with a timely drama from Naomi Wallace about three vigilantes, childhood friends who enjoy spending their time patrolling the U.S./Mexican border. In time, they gain a fuller, more complicated picture of border security and what it means to be an American in a work that features a warning akin to an R-rated movie: “This play contains adult content including acts of violence, sexual assault, guns, partial nudity, xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynist language.”

Matt Ripa, the artistic director of the DC Queer Theatre Festival, directs a cast featuring Jhonny Maldonado, Robert Pike, and Eli Pendry. To Aug. 31. Joe’s Movement Emporium, 3309 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Md. Tickets are $15 to $20. Call 301-699-1819 or visit www.alltheatrecompany.com.

MUSIC BRITTANY HOWARD

The soul-rattling Alabama Shakes singer is currently on a break from the hit Southern blues-rock band she leads in order to set out on a new, far more personal chapter of her career. Howard tours in advance of her upcoming solo debut Jaime, which gets personal in ways she barely hinted at previous-

ly. For example, there’s the ballad “Georgia,” which she told Rolling Stone is “about being a little gay black girl and having a crush on an older black girl.” The 30-year-old Howard takes the spotlight for two intimate nights at the 9:30 Club with opening act Thelma and the Sleaze.

Friday, Aug. 23, and Saturday, Aug. 24. Doors at 8 p.m. 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $55. Call 202-265-0930 or visit www.930.com.

CREATIVE CAULDRON’S SUMMER CABARET SERIES

The 10th annual summer cabaret series at ArtSpace Falls Church continues with “Bossa Fever” from the acclaimed local chilled-out jazz ensemble Veronneau on Friday, Aug. 23, and Saturday, Aug. 24, at 8 p.m. Series runs to Sept. 14. 410 South Maple Ave. in Falls Church.

Tickets are $18 to $22 per show, or $60 for a table for two with wine and $120 for four with wine.

Call 703-436-9948 or visit www.creativecauldron.org.

JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: FUNKY DAWGZ BRASS BAND

A summertime staple, the National Gallery of Art offers free outdoor concerts immediately after work every Friday through late August.

Bands offering a range of jazz styles, from swing to Latin to ska, perform amidst the museum’s collection of large-scale sculptural works while patrons enjoy food and drinks, including beer, wine, and sangria, as sold by the Pavilion Café.

New menu items for 2019 include the popular vegetarian Teriyaki Impossible Burger, a Bahn Mi Turkey Burger with ginger soy aioli, and more traditional sandwiches of pulled pork and beef brisket, all available at grill stations throughout the Sculpture Garden. The series concludes with the Connecticutbased seven-piece funk and hip-hop group Funky Dawgz Brass Band on Aug. 23. Evenings from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Sculpture Garden, between 7th and 9th Streets NW. Call 202-2893360 or visit www.nga.gov.

the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.)

Free. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

NEWMYER FLYER’S TRIBUTE TO THE EVERLY BROTHERS

An array of talented pop/folk vocalists and musicians from around the area are brought together to perform in tribute to one of the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Known for classic hits “Bye Bye Love,” “Let It Be Me,” “Love Hurts,” and “Walk Right Back.” Presented by the production company Newmyer Flyer, led by BandHouse Gigs co-founder Ron Newmyer, the concert features performances by David & Ginger Kitchen, the Jelly Roll Mortals, Ruthie & the Wranglers, Willie Barry, Bob Berberich, Lynn Kasdorf, and Louie Newmyer. The lineup also features a tribute to the 1970s band Grin, founded and fronted by Nils Lofgren. Grin Again features original Grin drummer Bob Berberich and singer Tom Lofgren, with Mike and Mark Lofgren subbing for their brother Nils and sharing lead vocal duties, plus Ronnie Newmyer subbing for the late bassist Bob Gordon. Friday, Aug. 30, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

Tickets are $29.50. Call 703-5497500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

OH HE DEAD

The amusing name — which also has a cool origin story — captures the playfully wry and passionate sensibility of this band on the rise, self-billed as a “D.C.-based indie soul band with haunting harmonies and a penchant for MURDER.” Distinguished by the vocal harmonies of founding members Cynthia “C.J.” Johnson and guitarist Andrew Valenti, Oh He Dead started out a few years ago as a country/folk act on the bluegrass and folk festival circuit, but their sound has expanded as they became a five-piece “rock ‘n’ soul band.” Also featuring lead guitarist Alex Salser, bassist John Daise, and drummer Adam Ashforth, Oh He Dead next performs a free concert at the Kennedy Center. Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 6 p.m. Millennium Stage.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

PRINCE TRIBUTE SHOW WITH JUNIE HENDERSON

Eugene “Junie” Henderson, best known as the leader of hitmaking D.C. go-go band E.U. (Experience Unlimited), presents an annual concert-driven dance party that pays tribute to the music of the Purple One. Henderson will channel the sound and charisma of the late, legendary pop/R&B superstar for this All-Star Purple Party accompanied by a band, led by Mark Stewart,

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S LABOR DAY CONCERT

Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke leads the NSO in the annual tradition on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. This year’s concert features vocalists Mykal Kilgore and Nova Payton in a program of popular songs by R&B hitmakers ranging from Aretha Franklin to Whitney Houston, James Brown to Stevie Wonder, plus a few patriotic songs, capped by Ray Charles’s version of “America The Beautiful.”

Also lending vocal support are Micah Robinson, Shacara Rogers, and Jillian Willis Sunday, Sept.

1, at 8 p.m. U.S. Capitol Building, West Lawn. (In case of inclement weather, the concert will move to

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202-588-1880 or visit www.ustreetmusichall.com.

COMEDY STAND-UP SILVER SPRING WITH SARA ARMOUR

An alum of Last Comic Standing, Armour headlines two shows presented by Maryland’s Improbable Comedy and also featuring Loy Lee, D Lo, and Maddox Pennington.

Saturday, Aug. 24, at 8 and 10 p.m.

Cissel-Saxon American Legion Post 41, 8110 Fenton St., Silver Spring.

Tickets are $16 to $25.

Call 301-588-8937 or visit wwww.improbablecomedy.com.

READINGS THE DC PUBLIC LIBRARY: DOCUMENTING QUEER HISTORY DISCUSSION

FREE FILMS FOR ALL

This weekend, the Shakespeare Theatre Company presents a mini-film festival in Sidney Harman Hall partly inspired by its popular Free For All. Yet while the organization’s namesake playwright is always the focus of that popular summer theater series, Free Films For All is bard-free. The focus instead is on a handful of recent, crowd-pleasing Hollywood blockbusters. The series kicks off on Friday, Aug. 23, at 8 p.m., with Steven Spielberg’s original dinosaur adventure, Jurassic Park and ends on Sunday, Aug. 25, with Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, at 11 a.m., and Pixar’s Inside Out, at 2 p.m.

Yet Saturday, Aug. 24, offers a noteworthy double bill of two influential female-centered comedies that remain relevant despite being released roughly two decades ago: Legally Blonde, the ditzy 2001 courtroom comedy starring Reese Witherspoon (7 p.m.) and Clueless, the 1995 coming-of-age rom-com with Alicia Silverstone (9 p.m.). At the Harman Center for the Arts, 610 F St. NW. Free, but reservations encouraged. Call 202547-1122 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org.

consisting of veteran R&B and rock players who have toured with everyone from Aretha Franklin to Patti LaBelle. Friday, Aug. 30. Doors at 6:30 p.m. 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $18 to $25. Call 202-787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK

A Grammy Award-winning, social justice-oriented ensemble, Sweet Honey formed in 1973 as an a cappella group and has assembled an extensive repertoire of socially conscious songs, both originals and covers, including ”My Family,” originally penned for the gay-inclusive HBO documentary A Family Is A Family Is A Family: A Rosie O’Donnell Celebration. Saturday, Aug. 24. Doors at 6 p.m. Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are $45 to $55, plus $20 minimum purchase per person. Call 240-330-4500 or visit www.bethesdabluesjazz.com.

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THE ALARM, MODERN ENGLISH, JAY ALSTON’S GENE LOVES JEZEBEL

Three leading 1980s-minted alt-rock bands from the U.K. have teamed up for a summer tour of North America, including a stop at the historic Falls Church venue the State Theatre. “Fans can expect collaboration, moments of reflection, camaraderie, and also the unexpected,” the Alarm lead singer Mike Peters says in an official statement about the Sigma LXXXV Tour. Peters is the only founding member left in a band best known stateside as an opening act for stadium tours by U2 and Bob Dylan, as well as the modern rock hit “Sold Me Down The River.”

Meanwhile, all but the original drummer still play in the five-piece band Modern English, responsible for the ubiquitous ’80s rock earworm “I Melt With You.” And then there’s the case of Gene Loves Jezebel, a band originally formed by identical twin brothers Jay and Michael Alston.

Yet the siblings have been feuding

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

for well over two decades now, with each fronting their own lineup of a band called Gene Loves Jezebel.

The one led by Jay includes more of the band’s longest-running members, including those featured on hits “Desire,” “The Motion of Love,” and “Jealous,” the latter being their highest-charting stateside single. Sunday, Aug. 25. Doors at 6 p.m. 220 North Washington St., Falls Church. Tickets are $33 to $38. Call 703-237-0300 or visit www.thestatetheatre.com.

WHITE FORD BRONCO

“D.C.’s all ’90s party band,” cheekily named after O.J. Simpson’s notorious failed getaway car, is a five-member ensemble consisting of singer/guitarist Diego Valencia, singer Gretchen Gustafson, guitarists Ken Sigmund and McNasty, and drummer Max Shapiro. White Ford Bronco sings through that decade’s songbook in all styles of popular music. Friday, Aug. 30. Doors at 11 p.m. U Street Music Hall, 1115A U St. NW. Tickets are $22 to $25. Call

The DC Public Library hosts a discussion, spearheaded by co-presenting outfit D.C. Dykaries, featuring several notable local LGBTQ leaders and their efforts to document local queer history. The speakers include Joan E. Biren (JEB), the LGBTQ movement’s pioneering photographer for almost 50 years; Jose Gutierrez, founder of the Latino GLBT History Project; Meg Metcalf, the reference librarian and Women’s, Gender & LGBTQ+ Studies Collection Specialist at the Library of Congress; and Ty Ginter, the queer historic preservationist and co-founder of D.C. Dykaries, an oral history and documentation project working to uncover and preserve the area’s lesbian, Sapphic, and queer heritage, Saturday, Aug. 24, at 1 p.m. Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood Library, 3160 16th St. NW. Free. Call 202-671-3121 or visit www.dclibrary.org.

NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

The Notorious R.B.G., more properly known as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will join José Andrés, Raina Telgemeier, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Barbara Kingsolver and other top authors in discussions at this 19th annual Library of Congress event. All told, more than 140 best-selling authors and illustrators will participate in the #NatBookFest, including Louis Bayard, Michael Beschloss, Holly Black, Douglas Brinkley, David Brooks, David Epstein, Joanne B. Freeman, Philippa Gregory, Monica Hesse, Linda Holmes, Alexandra Horowitz, David Maraniss, David McCullough, Joyce Carol Oates, Jim Ottaviani, Elaine Pagels, Steven Pearlstein, Evan Thomas, Ngozi Ukazu, and Frans de Waal. Saturday, Aug. 31, from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Pl. Call 202249-3000 or visit www.loc.gov.

ART & EXHIBITS DINOROARS

Right now, dinosaurs are in motion and causing a commotion of sorts at the National Zoo — but in as harmless and science-lite a way, and as far from Jurassic Park, as possible. Although they can move, roar, and even spit water, the six prehistoric creatures roaming the Smithsonian park’s central Olmsted Walk are essentially toys — animatronic replicas of everything from a baby stegosaurus to a 13-foot-tall, 39-foot-long T-Rex. An additional attraction is “Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live,” a 30-minute show in which a team of skilled performers and puppeteers bring to life a collection of “lifelike dinosaurs” touted as providing “visual oomph to rival The Lion King.” Multiple shows daily, except Mondays. To Aug. 31. 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW. Zoo entry is free; tickets to “Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo” are $8 to $10. Call 202-633-4888 or visit www.nationalzoo.si.edu.

E16: THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED

The culminating exhibition of the nonprofit gallery Transformer’s 16th Annual Exercises for Emerging Artists Program debuts new and experimental video-based works

by E16 artists Maps Glover, Alexis Gomez, Paula Martinez, and Tamanh Nguyen, set within a black-boxdesigned installation created by E16 lead mentors Rachel Debuque and Justin Plakas. To Aug. 24. 1404 P St. NW. Call 202-483-1102 or visit www.transformerdc.org.

REFIK ANADOL: INFINITE SPACE

D.C.’s technology-focused art gallery ArTecHouse presents the first major retrospective of Refik Anadol, a thoroughly 21st-century-focused artist who uses data and computerized networks to create radical visualizations of our digitized memories, expanding the possibilities of architecture, narrative, and the movement. Through site-specific, parametric data sculptures and immersive installations, the L.A.based Turkish artist helps rethink the physical world, our relationship to time and space, and the creative potential where humans and machines interact. The exhibition’s title derives from an infamous, internationally touring immersive installation featuring three infinity boxes and a selection of multimedia works spanning Anadol’s career.

To Sept. 2. ArTecHouse, 1238 Maryland Ave. SW. Tickets are $13 to $20, with “after hours” sessions featuring a bar with exhibition-related Augmented Reality cocktails. visit www.artechouse.com.

SUMMER INTERLUDE: A CELEBRATION OF COLOR

For its summer exhibition, Georgetown’s contemporary art gallery Calloway Fine Arts presents

“bold and bright” large, abstract paintings on canvas by David Bell, Leslie Nolan, and Karen Silve, plus smaller works on paper from Matthew Langley’s A Painting A Day series, which pull highlights of color from the larger works. To Aug. 24. 1643 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Call 202-965-4601 or visit www.callowayart.com.

SUPERHEROES

The National Museum of American History presents a nearly yearlong exhibition showcasing artifacts from its collections relating to animated protagonists, including comic books, movie and TV costumes and props and assorted memorabilia — from George Reeves’ Superman costume circa 1951 to Halle Berry’s Storm costume from 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.

On display through Sept. 2. 14th St. and Constitution Ave. NW. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.americanhistory.si.edu.

FOOD & DRINK TRUCKEROO

Held one Friday a month from April through September — plus two Fridays in August — ths long-running food truck festival is meant as a showcase for some of the D.C. area’s best food trucks. The lineup at the upcoming festival, held at the outdoor venue the Bullpen next to Nationals Park, features food for purchase from trucks including Korean BBQ Taco Box, Superior Eats

by Stacey’s Soul Food, Tapas Truck, Lombardo’s Detroit Style Pizza, Reggae Vibes, BBQ Bus, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Tamo Smoothies, Puddin, The Orange Cow, District Jerk, DC Empanadas, Mexicano Square, and FMK Mobile Cuisine.

Cold drinks, live music, and games are also on offer at the family friendly outing presented by Georgetown Events. Friday, Aug. 23, from 4 to 10 p.m. 1201 Half St. SE. Visit www.thebullpendc.com/truckeroo.

ABOVE & BEYOND 17TH STREET FESTIVAL

The Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets’ 10th annual event is designed to celebrate the restaurants and gay-friendly businesses in the blocks of what once was the gayest street in the city. (It’s still plenty gay.) For the occasion, organizers close to traffic the 1500-1600 blocks of the street to set up booths for vendors selling handmade goods — from hats to jewelry to cigars to paintings — with additional booths set up for local nonprofits, for-profit start-ups, local businesses, and community groups, plus a kids’ area. Also on tap at the event, held rain or shine, are live acoustic music performances. Saturday, Aug. 24, from noon to 6 p.m. Call 202-656-

WAIT WAIT...DON’T TELL ME!

The popular, entertaining NPR news quiz show returns for another annual broadcast from Wolf Trap. Peter Sagal hosts, along with judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis, two shows at the venue this year. On Thursday, Aug. 29, they will be joined by panelists Peter Grosz, Negin Farsad, and Faith Salie, while the show Friday, Aug. 30, features Tom “Motel 6” Bodett, Maz Jobrani, and the Washington Post’s Roxanne Roberts, with a featured celebrity guest to be announced. Gates for both shows open at 6:30 p.m.

The Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Lawn seats at $45 each are the only tickets remaining, and only for the Thursday, Aug. 29, show. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www.wolftrap.org.

4487 or visit www.17thStreetFestival.org for more information.

FORD'S THEATRE'S HISTORY ON FOOT

A local actor offers the guided tour Investigation: Detective McDevitt, portraying Detective James McDevitt, a D.C. police officer patrolling a half-block from Ford’s Theatre the night President Lincoln was shot. Written by Richard Hellesen and directed by Mark Ramont, the 1.6-mile walking tour revisits and reexamines the sites and clues from the investigation into the assassination. Tours are offered approximately three evenings a week at 6:45 p.m. Ford's Theatre, 511 10th St. NW. Tickets are $17. Call 202-397-7328 or visit www.fords.org.

MARYLAND RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL

As summer nears its end, thoughts naturally turn to jousting, feasting, crafts, theater, music, and merriment. Yes, it's time once again for one of the world’s largest festivals recreating 16th century England.

Now in its 43rd season and set in a park outside of Annapolis, Md., the festival encourages patrons to dress up in period costume. They’re available to rent if you don’t have your own doublet and hose. Just

don’t bring weapons, real or toy, or pets, as they tend to eat the turkey legs. It all takes place in the 27-acre Village of Revel Grove, where more than 200 professionals will perform as characters of the era, naturally led by His Most Royal Highness King Henvry VIII, who will be wandering the steeds and streets when not on the village’s 10 stages or in the 3,000-seat arena, where a headline attraction is the jousting troupe Debracey Productions with its field full of horses, men in armor, chariots, trick riding and thrills for all ages. Also on hand are over 140 artisans exhibiting their predominantly handmade crafts in renaissance shops, five taverns and watering holes helping adult patrons stay hydrated and in good spirits, and 42 food and beverage emporiums to quench the hunger and thirst of even the youngest and most discerning. The first three weekends of the festival, beginning this Saturday, Aug. 24, offers reduced pricing. Weekends through Oct. 20.

1821 Crownsville Road, Annapolis, Md. Tickets are $18 to $20 for a single-day adult ticket until Sept. 8, or $23 to $27 after; passes range from $41 for a 2-Day Pass to $160 for a Season Pass good for all 19 days.

Call 800-296-7304 or visit www.rennfest.com. l

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

15

theFeed

ENDORSING HATE

The Log Cabin Republicans endorsed Trump, claiming he’s benefited the LGBTQ community. That’s absurd. By Rhuaridh Marr

T

HE LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS — AMERICA’S largest and oldest organization for LGBTQ conservatives — have endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2020. In a glowing column for the Washington Post, chairman Robert Kabel and vice chairwoman Jill Homan extol the virtues of Trump’s presidency, the progress that has been made, and the benefits his policies have brought.

Most of all, they argue, Trump has “followed through on many of his commitments to the United States, including taking bold actions that benefit the LGBTQ community.”

Wait, what? At best, that is myopic specificity. At worst, it’s a reality-bending, bald-faced lie. Above all else, that a major LGBTQ organization is endorsing Donald Trump as having been good for LGBTQ people is patently absurd.

The Log Cabin Republicans first started in the 1970s, and since then claims to have spent 40 years “working for change within the GOP” and “building new alliances in the LGBT community.” They say they are “shattering stereotypes” and “educating the GOP’s rank-and-file about the importance of fairness and equality for all Americans, including LGBT Americans.”

But this is also the same organization that, in 2016, slammed the Republican party’s election platform as “the most anti-LGBT…in the Party’s 162-year history.”

It was a platform that urged support for Supreme Court judges who would overthrow marriage equality, a platform that opposed same-sex marriage, a platform that rejected same-sex parent adoption, and that the New York Times editorial board said “makes homophobia and the denial of basic civil rights to gays, lesbians and transgender people a centerpiece.”

And, a couple of months later, Log Cabin Republicans refused to endorse then-nominee Trump, saying there was too much uncertainty over what he might do as president and noting that he had “surrounded himself with senior advisors with a record of opposing LGBT equality.”

So what, exactly, has changed between 2016 and 2019?

In one of the finest examples of cherry-picking in recent memory, Kabel and Homan highlight several aspects of the Trump presidency that they say have benefited LGBTQ people: his commitment to end HIV/AIDS in 10 years; the Trump administration’s push to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide; and the appointment of openly gay Richard Grenell to be U.S. ambassador to Germany.

In addition, they say Trump’s signature tax cuts have “benefited LGBTQ families and helped put food on their tables,” that his “hard line on foreign policy” has protected LGBTQ lives, and that Trump’s trade negotiations have “preserved LGBTQ jobs.”

But let’s look closely at some of those issues.

On HIV/AIDS, it’s commendable that the Trump administration has committed to reducing new HIV transmissions by 90 percent within 10 years. But Trump also fired the entire Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/ADS and then waited 16

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

over a year to restaff it. He suspended access to materials necessary for research into a cure for HIV. His border agents separated migrant children from their HIV-positive parents, erroneously claiming that it was a “communicable disease.”

And under Trump, the military has started discharging HIVpositive service members.

Decriminalizing homosexuality worldwide is an incredible goal — one being lead by Ambassador Grenell — and would aim to use sanctions and other methods to force the 71 nations with laws criminalizing same-sex sexual relations to revoke them.

But Trump didn’t even seem to be aware of the plan after it had been announced, and the Trump-Pence 2020 campaign has been silent on the matter while attending rallies and fundraisers. Critics have even argued that it’s just a smokescreen to allow the U.S. to pursue harsher sanctions against Iran.

With regard to Ambassador Grenell, it’s certainly notable that Trump nominated an openly gay man to a top diplomatic role. And he recently nominated another gay man, Robert Gilchrist, to be ambassador to Lithuania.

But these token appointments pale in comparison to the sheer number of anti-LGBTQ people in Trump’s administration and comprising a large portion of the judges he has nominated to federal benches. The Victory Fund estimates that Trump has nominated “less than 20” LGBTQ people to any role since taking office, whereas at least a third of Trump’s federal circuit court nominees have a history of anti-LGBTQ bias.

Log Cabin may support Trump’s tax cuts, but they have predominantly benefited the wealthy and may be harming the economy. What impact was felt by trans women of color?

One of the most marginalized groups in America, trans women of color face multiple crises and difficulties, including disproportionate murder rates, healthcare and employment discrimination, and reliance on sex work to earn money. Did Trump’s tax cuts “put food on their tables”?

Log Cabin Republicans claim that Trump’s foreign policy is saving LGBTQ lives, but his administration refuses to acknowledge the threat of domestic terrorism. Just this month, a white supremacist was arrested over a plot to attack gay bars and synagogues in Las Vegas, and the recent mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, claimed the life of the shooter’s own transgender brother.

Kabel and Homan say Trump’s trade deals have “preserved LGBTQ jobs,” but earlier this week the Trump administration announced plans to allow federal contractors to fire or refuse to hire LGBTQ people without repercussions.

What about those jobs? And have they forgotten that last year Trump forced Mexico and Canada to remove LGBTQ employment protections from a North American trade deal?

“The arc of history for America’s LGBTQ community continues to bend toward equality and inclusion,” Kabel and Homan write in their column. But that arc has been undeniably sent shooting off course by the Trump administration’s

actions over the past two-and-a-half years.

One only need look at the various anti-LGBTQ actions Trump and his cabinet members have taken since he assumed office in January 2017. They include: Proposing eliminating healthcare protections for transgender people; creating a commission to examine human rights that’s filled with anti-LGBTQ figures; banning transgender people from serving in the military; allowing healthcare workers to deny care to LGBTQ people; banning U.S. embassies from flying Pride flags; allowing adoption and fostering agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ parents; and proposing allowing homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender people.

And most of those happened this year.

Never mind that Trump opposes the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination nationwide, or that the administration is trying to revoke citizenship from a gay couple’s son, or that his administration proposed erasing recognition of transgender people from the federal government.

The list goes on, and on, and on.

But for Kabel, Homan, and the Log Cabin Republican party, none of this seemingly matters, because Trump has apparently “[removed] gay rights as a wedge issue from the old Republican playbook.”

Yes, they really wrote that, just two paragraphs after noting that “LGBTQ individuals can still be fired just for being gay in a majority of states in America,” and in the same week that Trump proposed allowing even more people to be fired for being LGBTQ. Heck, earlier this month a Republican in Ohio was widely criticized for blaming mass shootings on gay marriage, last month Republicans in the House urged Amazon to keep stocking books that promote anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy, and

the Texas GOP wants to allow any professional with a license to deny service to LGBTQ people. But sure, Trump has removed gay rights as a “wedge issue.”

To their (limited) credit, Kabel and Homan do say that they oppose the ban on transgender military service and will “press the administration to reconsider.”

But one has to ask, in 40 years of “working for change” in the GOP — only to see Republicans consistently attempt to roll back LGBTQ rights and protections at the federal and state level — just how effective will that pressing to reconsider be?

In perhaps the most laughable part of the whole endorsement, Kabel and Homan write, “we know that ‘Inclusion Wins’ is a mantra we share with the president.”

This about a man who has mocked disabled people, called Mexicans rapists, told four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” where they came from, said African and central American nations were “shithole countries,” argued that there were “very fine people” marching with white supremacists, who called Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters an “extraordinarily low IQ person,” and who mocked Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings after a break-in at his home.

What about any of that suggests “Inclusion”?

For Log Cabin Republicans to endorse four more years of a Trump presidency — one that removes protections for LGBTQ people, that enables religious-based discrimination, that stocks itself with anti-LGBTQ bigots — is an affront to the millions of LGBTQ people who have and will suffer at the hands of this administration.

For an LGBTQ organization that touts its support for “fairness, freedom, and equality for all Americans,” they’re doing a seriously shitty job. l

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Community THURSDAY, August 22 The DC ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECT, a group dedicated to combating anti-LGBT hate crimes, holds its monthly meeting at The DC Center. The meeting is open to all and the public is encouraged to attend.

7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

The DC Center holds a roundtable discussion as part of its

COMING OUT DISCUSSION GROUP on the second Tuesday

and fourth Thursday of each month. This group is for those navigating issues associated with coming out and personal identity. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

WEEKLY EVENTS ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit www.andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

session at Takoma Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

LGBTQ square-dancing group, features an opportunity to learn about and practice various forms of modern square dancing. No partner required. Please dress casually. 7:30-9:30 p.m.

National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-930-1058 or visit www.dclambdasquares.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

practice. The team is always looking for new members.

All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www.scandalsrfc.org.

THE DULLES TRIANGLES

Northern Virginia social group meets for happy hour at

18

Weekly Events Sheraton in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor bar.

For more information, visit www.dullestriangles.com.

HIV TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2:30-5 p.m. at 1525 14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE. For an appointment, call 202-745-7000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY (K.I.) SERVICES, 20 S. Quaker

2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org or call 202-682-2245.

The DC Center’s TRANS SUPPORT GROUP provides a space to talk for transgender people and those who identify outside of the gender binary. 7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES (AND THIRTIES), a social

Lane, Suite 210, Alexandria, Va., offers $30 “rapid” HIV testing and counseling by appointment only. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Must schedule special appointment if seeking testing after 2 p.m. Call 703823-4401. www.kiservices.org

discussion and activity group for queer women, meets at The DC Center on the second and fourth Friday of each month.

Group social activity to follow the meeting. 8-9:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

METROHEALTH CENTER

Weekly Events

offers free, rapid HIV testing.

Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-8498029. www.metrohealthdc.org

STI TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2-3 p.m. at both 1525 14th St. NW and the Max Robinson Center, 2301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for those without symptoms. For an appointment call 202-745-7000 or visit www. whitman-walker.org.

US HELPING US hosts a

Narcotics Anonymous Meeting.

The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-446-1100. www.ushelpingus.com.

FRIDAY, August 23 GAMMA is a confidential, vol-

untary, peer-support group for men who are gay, bisexual, questioning and who are now or who have been in a relationship with a woman. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are also held in Vienna, Va., and in Frederick, Md. For more information, visit www.gammaindc.org.

The DC Center holds its

CENTER AGING MONTHLY LUNCH for members of D.C.’s

senior community. Lunch is potluck style, meaning feel free to bring your favorite dish to share with others. 12-2 p.m.

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

BET MISHPACHAH, founded

by members of the LGBT community, holds Friday evening Shabbat services in the DC Jewish Community Center’s Community Room. 8 p.m. 1529 16th St. NW. For more information, visit www.betmish.org.

PROJECT STRIPES hosts

LGBT-affirming social group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road NW. Contact Tamara, 202-319-0422, www. layc-dc.org.

SATURDAY, August 24 AGLA hosts its monthly AFTERNOON COFFEE JOLT, a time for members

of the LGBTQ community in Northern Virginia to socialize and make connections over a cup of coffee. Organizer Eric will be wearing gold and purple Mardi Gras beads for easy identification. 2:30-3:30 p.m. Rappahannock Coffee and Roasting, 2406 Columbia Pike, Arlington, Va. For more info, visit www.agla.org.

Join The DC Center as it volunteers for FOOD & FRIENDS, packing meals and groceries for people living with serious ailments. 10 a.m.-noon. 219 Riggs Rd. NE. Near the Fort Totten Metro. For a ride from the Metro, call the Food & Friends shuttle at 202-669-6437. For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org or www. foodandfriends.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

practice session at Montgomery College Aquatics Club. 8:3010 a.m. 7600 Takoma Ave., Takoma, Md. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/ walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distance will be 3-6 miles. Walkers meet at 9:30 a.m. and runners at 10 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit www. dcfrontrunners.org.

SUNDAY, August 25 Weekly Events BETHEL CHURCH-DC pro-

gressive and radically inclusive church holds services at 11:30 a.m.

2217 Minnesota Ave. SE. 202248-1895, www.betheldc.org.

DIGNITYUSA offers Roman

Catholic Mass for the LGBT community. All welcome.

Sign interpreted. 6 p.m. St. Margaret’s Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave. NW. For more information, visit www. dignitywashington.org.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST welcomes all to 10:30 a.m. service, 945 G St. NW. For more info, visit www.firstuccdc.org or call 202-628-4317.

HOPE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST welcomes GLBT community for worship. 10:30 a.m., 6130 Old Telegraph Road, Alexandria.

Visit www.hopeucc.org.

Join LINCOLN

CONGREGATIONAL TEMPLE – UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST for an inclusive, loving and progressive faith community every Sunday. 11 a.m. 1701 11th Street NW, near R in Shaw/Logan neighborhood. Visit www.lincolntemple.org.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA ser-

vices at 11 a.m., led by Rev. Emma Chattin. Children’s Sunday School, 11 a.m. 10383 Democracy Lane, Fairfax. For more info, call 703-691-0930 or visit www.mccnova.com.

NATIONAL CITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, inclusive church with GLBT fellowship, offers gospel

worship, 8:30 a.m., and traditional worship, 11 a.m. 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-2320323 or visit www.nationalcitycc.org.

ST. STEPHEN AND THE INCARNATION, an “interracial,

multi-ethnic Christian Community” offers services in English, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and in Spanish at 5:15 p.m. 1525 Newton St. NW. For more info, call 202-232-0900 or visit www.saintstephensdc.org.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF SILVER SPRING

invites LGBTQ families and individuals of all creeds and cultures to join the church. Services 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. 10309 New Hampshire Ave. For more info, visit www.uucss.org.

MONDAY, August 26 Weekly Events DC’S DIFFERENT DRUMMERS

welcomes musicians of all abilities to join its Monday night rehearsals.

The group hosts marching/color guard, concert, and jazz ensembles, with performances year round.

Please contact Membership@ DCDD.org to inquire about joining one of the ensembles or visit www.

DCDD.org.

The DC Center hosts COFFEE

DROP-IN FOR THE SENIOR LGBT COMMUNITY. 10 a.m.-noon. 2000

14th St. NW. For more information, call 202-682-2245 or visit www. thedccenter.org.

US HELPING US hosts a black

gay men’s evening affinity group for GBT black men. Light refreshments provided. 7-9 p.m. 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.

Visit www.ushelpingus.org.

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome.

Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit www.wetskins.org.

TUESDAY, August 27 GENDERQUEER DC, a support and

discussion group for people who identify outside the gender binary, meets at The DC Center on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events

Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www.scandalsrfc.org.

THE GAY MEN'S HEALTH COLLABORATIVE offers free

HIV testing and STI screening and treatment every Tuesday.

5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday LGBT Clinic, Alexandria Health Department, 4480 King St. 703746-4986 or text 571-214-9617. www.inova.org/gmhc

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

holds an LGBT-focused meeting every Tuesday, 7 p.m. at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 915 Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps from Virginia Square Metro. Handicapped accessible.

Newcomers welcome. For more info, call Dick, 703-521-1999 or email liveandletliveoa@gmail.com.

Support group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-21 meets at SMYAL. 5-6:30 p.m. 410 7th St. SE. For more information, contact Rebecca York, 202567-3165, or visit www.smyal.org.

US HELPING US hosts a support

group for black gay men 40 and older. 7-9 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. Call 202-446-1100. www.ushelpingus.org.

Whitman-Walker Health holds its weekly GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND WELLNESS/STD CLINIC. Patients are seen on a walk-in basis. No-cost screening for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Hepatitis and herpes testing available for a fee.

Testing starts at 6 p.m, but should arrive early to ensure a spot. 1525 14th St. NW. For more information, visit www.whitman-walker.org.

WEDNESDAY, August 28 LAMBDA BRIDGE CLUB meets at

the Dignity Center for Duplicate Bridge. No reservations needed.

Newcomers welcome. 7:30 p.m. 721 8th St. SE (across from the Marine Barracks). Call 202-841-0279 if you need a partner.

The DC Center’s HEALTH WORKING GROUP, which focuses on HIV prevention and supporting long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS, holds a monthly meeting at The DC Center. For this meeting, Cortlen Yarborough will be talking about the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), HIV medication financial assistance programs, and how to get connected with those programs.

6:30-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org. l

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome.

7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

19

THE DIVINE ART OF PIZZA When Ruth Gresser opened Pizzeria Paradiso, she pioneered gourmet pizza in D.C., and served it with a side of community spirit.

Interview by Doug Rule • Photography by Todd Franson

T

HE TRICK TO MAKING RESTAURANT-QUALITY PIZZA at home? Use your oven’s broiler. “Get your oven as hot you possibly can, and use the broiler to cook it,” says Ruth Gressler. “Then just turn it down to the highest bake setting. It gives a nice rise to the crust.”

Gresser goes into greater detail in Kitchen Workshop – Pizza: Hands-On Cooking Lessons for Making Amazing Pizza at Home, the step-by-step cookbook she penned in 2013. However, the acclaimed chef is quick to concede that it may not work. “Some ovens will not be successful just because they won't get hot enough.”

Still, if you use a pizza stone and the broiler, the finished product should approximate the kind you’ve savored over for years at Pizzeria Paradiso. We’re talking high-quality, Neapolitan-style pizza baked in a 650-degree wood-burning oven — the kind you may or may not eat with a knife and fork, but you certainly can’t buy by the slice.

These days, gourmet pizzas can be found throughout the D.C. area. Yet few match the quality — and even fewer the reputation — of Gresser’s Pizzeria Paradiso, which now serves five area neighborhoods, including Old Town Alexandria and Upper Northwest’s Spring Valley.

Earlier this year, Gresser garnered recognition from the James Beard Foundation, the restaurant industry’s leading arbiter, when it selected her as a semifinalist for the James Beard Award as Outstanding Restaurateur. “I've worked on a national level with Women Chefs and Restaurateurs and with the James Beard Foundation, so I understand that my world is bigger than 20

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

the four walls of my restaurants,” Gresser says. “This award reminded me that what I do impacts the larger world. It’s very gratifying.”

And Gresser has been engaging with the world more and more, in ways that go beyond pizza. All year long, for example, she’s been spearheading the “United States of Pizza: Women’s Slice of the Pie.” The promotion honors states that have elected women to top political jobs with individually themed pizzas, the implied aim being to encourage more women to engage in politics and lead our country.

“I don't feel like what I do is political,” Gresser says, downplaying a suggestion that the promotion is partially inspired by politics. “But I was raised with a strong sense of responsibility to goodness.”

Called “Momma Ruth” by some of her staff, the 60-year-old cites those very employees — now numbering 170, including part-timers — as a key reason for Pizzeria Paradiso’s success and rapid expansion in recent years. Although there are no set plans, she doesn’t deny that there might be more new locations in the pipeline.

“Anything is possible,” she smiles, warmly. “If you had told me five years ago that this is where we'd be today, I wouldn't have believed it.”

METRO WEEKLY: Let’s start with the “United States of Pizza:

Women’s Slice of the Pie.” It’s a great idea.

RUTH GRESSER: It’s a promotional idea that’s really about women's leadership — it's not really about politics. What we're doing

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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is picking one state a week, and we're highlighting the women in leadership at the top level from that state — so the governor, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Representative. And both parties are represented. It's just that they are women, because there are a lot of statistics that women lead differently and the results are better.

And because we're in Washington, it all fits together. This is a way to just focus on women in politics — which of course was the big theme of the last election and the Year of the Woman.

I'm 60 years old, I've lived through several Year of the Woman elections. So that was really my motivation for doing it — I wasn't ready to let go of the idea of women's leadership. I just wanted to keep that conversation alive.

MW: It’s important to note that not every state will get its own week and pizza. Nearly a dozen states will be snubbed, because voters have yet to elect a single woman to a top office in recent elections.

GRESSER: Right, and I'm from Maryland — I was raised with Barbara Mikulski, who always represented Maryland in one way or the other. And now she's retired, and there aren't any women in those positions, so Maryland doesn't get a week, which is very sad for me.

MW: The promotion must help keep your creative juices flowing, as you work to identify appropriate toppings for each pizza.

GRESSER: It's been interesting to do the research about each state. Each pizza either focuses on a product from that state or a dish. For example, the Washington state pizza had apples, and for California we did cioppino, the seafood stew that was created in San Francisco.

Along the way, a few of the weeks we’ve made donations to organizations that are related to the pizzas. When the Georgia legislature and governor passed the very stringent anti-abortion laws, we were highlighting Georgia just by chance, and the gov-

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ernor of Georgia is a woman. And so, we got a lot of pushback about why we are highlighting this woman. It was completely by chance that those two things coincided. There were some people who said to me, "You should take her off the special sheet."

Because on our sheet, we say what the pizza is, what the state is, and who the women are. I said, "I can't — I'm not rewriting history. We have to deal with all of it." So what we decided to do was make a donation to Planned Parenthood from some of the revenue from those pizzas. And Missouri and Arkansas are in that category, too.

In September, we're going to do a D.C. pizza, highlighting Eleanor Holmes Norton and Muriel Bowser. And we're going to run it the week that the House has its statehood hearings for D.C. And we're going to make a donation to DC Vote.

MW: What will the toppings be?

GRESSER: It'll probably be a half-smoke and chili pizza.

MW: You’ve been running this promotion since January.

GRESSER: Yes. We started a couple weeks into January, and we'll end with U.S. territories taking us to the week before Thanksgiving. The interesting thing about the timing is that we will be able to get through all the states and the territories just in time to start the holiday promotion we've done for eight or nine years now. Starting the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas, we take spent grains from DC Brau and make them into a pizza crust. We charge a little extra for that pizza and proceeds from the extra revenue are donated to Bread For The City.

MW: How did you personally end up in D.C? GRESSER: I'm from Baltimore, and I went a very circuitous route just to go 30 miles. I spent some time in New Hampshire working with a French chef, who had a cooking school and restaurant.

Her name was Madeleine Kamman. And she placed me in a restaurant here in D.C., in the late 1980s.

“Pizza is bread with stuff on top that’s baked, and you eat it with your fingers. It’s like everything good about food all in one.

AND YOU CAN GO FROM CANTALOUPE TO OLIVES. I MEAN, YOU CAN PUT ANYTHING ON A PIZZA.”

I worked in a few restaurants here before I opened Paradiso in 1991. Now Neapolitan-style pizza, everybody knows about it. There are a lot of places that offer it. But we were the first one to do that kind of pizza in a wood-burning oven. I had been working in an Italian restaurant before opening Paradiso, and I wanted to step away from the high-end formal cooking that I'd been doing, and wanted a place that was more casual that my friends would come to. Pizza seemed like a great option.

MW: Your background is not Italian.

GRESSER: No, I'm Jewish-American from Eastern Europe, and then my grandmother was Roman Catholic from Ireland.

MW: That's quite a mix.

GRESSER: Yeah, it was! My grandfather and my grandmother, in the 1920s — an Orthodox Jew and a Roman Catholic girl marrying, in Baltimore. They went to the Justice of the Peace and kept it under wraps for a while.

MW: Did you grow up cooking?

GRESSER: Yes. My family was a food family, and I cooked. My mother had a catering business for some of my teenage years, and my father owned a grocery store. My mother taught me about cooking, and my father taught me about business, without me really knowing that that's what was happening, that they were preparing me for this.

I went to Grinnell College in Iowa, and graduated with an Economics degree. I came out in college and then moved to San Francisco. Which, not only was it the place to go if you were gay, but it also was the birthplace of New American cooking. And it was 1980, so it was the right time and the right place. My first job was working in a barbecue joint. And from there, I went to several neighborhood restaurants, where I was able to learn and also move up in the kitchen.

MW: Do you come from a big family?

GRESSER: I do. I have five brothers and sisters. We still get together. Familial bonds are very important, and I left in order to be a lesbian. I moved away from Baltimore when I went to college and didn't come back until I was thirty. So I think there was a very clear reason why I needed to go and figure out what my life was going to look like before I could bring it back home.

Coming out has probably changed for at least some of our community — that your family will accept you more easily. I do have a niece who came out when she was 16, and she struggled only with the societal identity — within her family structure, it was completely accepted. No one had a problem with her being a lesbian, but she still had, I guess, internalized homophobia.

MW: You opened the first Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupont Circle and

down the block from the current location. How did you come to be in that location and in the “gayborhood?”

GRESSER: It was actually a space that was right next door to the Italian restaurant where I was working, and it became available.

And it was tiny — about 35 seats.

MW: I remember. It was hard to get a seat.

GRESSER: Yeah. And at that point — we're talking 1991 — I was 32. It was the perfect-size investment for someone who was young and just starting out, and also because we were the first ones to do that kind of pizza, and that kind of idea — all of the things that are still the buzzwords of the food scene: chef-driven, local, fresh. We were really at the beginning of this movement.

And it’s huge now. It's crazy to think what's happened over the course of my career.

MW: You’ve increased the number of Paradiso restaurants over the last decade, with two of the five locations opening in the last two years alone. What prompted the recent expansion?

GRESSER: I think a lot of it had to do with my team. Going from Dupont and then opening Georgetown, that was to give growth for the people who were working with me. That's really been the biggest impetus — because in order to grow, you have to add more people to the organization, and then they'll bring their own perspectives and ideas and desires. And they fit together.

The whole beer program is really because people who are part of the organization have been instrumental in working with me to create it.

When we opened in Georgetown in the cellar, we used the name Birreria just to identify it. There was the Dupont restaurant that didn't have much of a beer program, and then there was the Georgetown restaurant that had this whole thing. As we grew and we were able to make space where the bar is more integrated into the restaurant, the beer program is identified as the Birreria.

MW: And the cellar space in Georgetown, that’s now an arcade?

GRESSER: Yeah, I think we opened the Paradiso Game Room in January of 2018. So that space was transformed, but the beer program in Georgetown remains. And the upstairs bar has the broad selection, and the downstairs space has a smaller selection that's more focused on canned craft beer.

MW: I know each location is slightly different. Do you have a favorite?

GRESSER: [Laughs.] A mother's not allowed to have a favorite.

They all have their own personality, and I like things about all of them. Georgetown is the largest, and Dupont has a fondness — it's odd, because even though it's moved, it still feels like the AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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center for me. They all take on the personality of the neighborhood where they live.

MW: The two-year-old Hyattsville Paradiso has a kind of personal significance in that it shares the building with the nonprofit Art Works Now, run by Barbara Johnson, your wife.

GRESSER: My spouse. I had a radical feminist youth, and the idea of the word “wife” — it's been hard, historically, to be a wife, so I choose to use the word “spouse.” My spouse uses the word wife, so we have that conversation often. “Dyke” wasn't a positive word ever before, so she’s like, "We need to reclaim that word.

We need to reclaim ‘wife’ and define it not as property and lesser-than.” But I'm not there yet.

MW: Is it true that you and Barbara started dating relatively soon after you opened the original restaurant?

GRESSER: A year after. We will have been together for 27 years come Labor Day weekend. We had an illegal wedding on our 12th anniversary — we had a gathering and a party, the cere-

mony, everything but the license. And we got legally married in Maryland on our 21st anniversary.

MW: Is marriage something you had thought much about?

GRESSER: I never thought about it. In fact, I was anti-marriage.

For me it changed about a month after our illegal wedding, because my spouse and I were going through a difficult time.

And had we not just pronounced our commitment to each other in front of our community, I think it would have been easier for us to say, "This is enough." But marriage is hard, you know? I mean, we've been together for 27 years, and nothing is wonderful for 27 years. Nothing is. So often, people just choose, when it gets tough, you end. And that could've happened to us. And I think when it didn't, and when we remained committed to each other, it changed my understanding of what marriage could be. I think that's the ideal. And now 27 years into it, we're very, very, very happy together. It's really nice. I'm very fortunate.

MW: Do you see the company continuing to expand and adding

“I had a radical feminist youth, so I choose to use the word ‘spouse.’

My spouse uses the word ‘wife,’ so we have that conversation often.

SHE’S LIKE, ‘WE NEED TO RECLAIM ‘WIFE’ AND DEFINE IT NOT AS PROPERTY AND LESSER-THAN.’ BUT I'M NOT THERE YET.”

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more locations in the coming years?

GRESSER: What I see as my role at this point is to figure out how Paradiso outlives me. I've been doing it for almost 30 years, and the world is different. It needs to stay relevant to people who weren't even around when we opened. After 30 years in my role, it's time for the organization to start moving past me.

It's like an executive director of a non-profit and finding the succession plan — that's where I am. What I created over the last 30 years is a community and a family. And even though the people change, the feeling that was created has remained. I absolutely think there's room for it to grow. A community can always get larger, and a community that's based on respect and nurturing and support and kindness should get bigger, so we'll see. We'll see if I'm successful in helping make that happen.

MW: So five years from now, you may no longer be the head of the company?

GRESSER: I see myself continuing to be the leader, but with less day-to-day responsibility. Frankly, not working as hard.

MW: Has your job gotten harder or busier with the new locations?

GRESSER: My job has changed so much. I don't know if I'm busier. I'm absolutely less busy than I was the year after we opened the original restaurant, when I was working 100 to 120 hours a week. My favorite story to tell is sleeping in the restaurant one night because I was just too late to drive home, and I had to be back too early. And I wore a Paradiso tee shirt and jeans — that was my uniform. And in Dupont Circle, right across the street was Luster Cleaners. I used to take them my laundry so that they would wash my clothes, because I didn't have time. It was a very interesting lesson in what our needs are, what's really necessary.

At that point, I worked so much that there was nothing auxiliary.

A couple of weeks before I met Barbara, my brother died.

And I was away from the restaurant for a day and a half. And I learned that I could be away from the restaurant for a day and a half. And that made an opening, frankly, for Barbara, who came in during that period. Probably a month earlier, I wouldn't have even seen her. There wasn't space in my world for anything else except the restaurant.

MW: Do you ever get tired of pizza?

GRESSER: Well, I'm going to say it this way. There are periods where I won't eat pizza for a while. But pizza is bread with stuff on top that's baked, and you eat it with your fingers. It's like everything good about food all in one. And you can go from cantaloupe to olives. I mean, you can put anything on a pizza. One thing that has changed with our pizzas: When we first opened, we topped the pizzas, frankly, more sparsely than we do now.

We found that our customers preferred a little bit of a heavier, almost American hand over an Italian hand.

MW: What else have you learned over the years?

GRESSER: People like pepperoni.

MW: But you must have known that.

GRESSER: I knew it, but it took probably 20-plus years to put a pizza with pepperoni on the menu. We had pepperoni on the toppings list, because we are in America. But because we were modeling ourselves more on an Italian pizza style, we didn't list a pizza with pepperoni. And then at some point, I just finally said, "You know what? Let's just make it."

MW: Now that there are many other quality pizzerias around, how do you ensure your restaurants — and your pizzas — stand out?

GRESSER: I have to say that I like our pizza best. It's my favorite pizza — which is good, because it's my pizza, right? I talk about my pizza as a country bread. First is the crust — that's the key. And the crust that I prefer is this kind of chewy, a little bit AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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crunchy, and very airy. I also like it with a nice amount of color and char. So I like this style of pizza better than the VPN, the traditional Neapolitan certified style — because I prefer this kind of crust to the softer, more tender and chewy crust. Personally, I like very simple pizzas. My favorite pizza is tomato and buffalo mozzarella, a little bit of oregano, and then a piece of prosciutto di Parma after it comes out of the oven.

We're the originator in the area, so the things that come together here that I think have led to our success is having a very approachable and enjoyable style of pizza, as I see it, and then having the beer program in addition to that. And then having the quality of service and the community feel. So I feel like we hit everything, and that makes us stand out. And one of the things that I hear year after year is that our standards are maintained.

That's what my job is these days, to make sure that we keep showing our customers what we do best every time they come.

I don't want these restaurants to lose the community feeling among the staff, because that's the kind of environment that I want to work in, [and] it’s related to our customers, who become part of our community. And that's really been important to our success, that our customers walk in the door and feel something different here than they might in other places.

MW: You try to make it feel like a community, or even a surrogate family to some extent?

GRESSER: Yeah. Early in the Dupont days, one of my staff members started calling me Momma Ruth. I knew when I was 10 years old that I didn't want kids.

MW: Do you mind being called Momma Ruth?

GRESSER: I actually love it. At that point, I was the same age, pretty much, as “my kids.” And now I'm almost their grandmother's age, which is an interesting transition also. The fact that that’s kind of how it feels here is important.

MW: The local food scene overall has grown and changed dramatically over the past few decades. What strikes you about the industry and what’s on offer today?

GRESSER: There are certainly more options today, and that's a great thing. We might be getting to the point where there are too many — if for no other reason than there has to be a critical mass in order for a restaurant to last more than a year or two, or three.

The thing that is probably the most striking to me is that when I entered the restaurant business, it was about making food. And now 30, 40 years later, it's more about entertainment than it is about food — food is an element in the entertainment.

So that makes me a little sad, frankly.

MW: Hence, the video games.

GRESSER: The video games, yeah, because people want more than just food when they go out to eat now. We do things that fit into who we are and how people know us — people want to relate to their restaurants more than just as a source of food and nourishment. People used to gather at other people's homes, and that moved to gathering in public spaces, which were restaurants around food — it was still around the table, but taken into a public space. And then the next step is this idea that the space provides more and is more of a community center. Maybe Starbucks had something to do with it — you go and have coffee, and they have Internet, so it becomes your office. I don't know.

I'm not a sociologist. But it is absolutely something that I recognize as the provider of these spaces.

We just did a beer festival in the park on King Street. And I'm not an event producer — my background is food and cooking and running a business.

MW: Does Paradiso have an events director?

GRESSER: We actually just created the position. Everything 26

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before was me, primarily, working with the beer director, because most of our stuff has been focused around beer. We started doing events with beer dinners when we first opened the Birreria space in Georgetown. But in June, one of our managers moved into an operations and events role.

And we recently purchased a mobile pizza oven, it’s on a trailer so we can take it to different places. We've had about five or six events with it. We did a beer festival in Hyattsville, so that was the inaugural event. We've been at the Atlas Brew Works, and we're going to be there again in September. We're going to be at Port City. We're talking about taking it to Snallygaster. And we've done some private events with it. So we can do catering, festivals, or private catering events.

That's why we created the position — to see where we can take the oven. Paradiso On the Road, maybe that's what we should dub it. Or Pizzeria Paradiso on Wheels?

MW: The local LGBTQ scene has also expanded and changed dramatically since the late-1980s when you settled here.

GRESSER: I have a funny story about when I first moved to D.C., either in '86, or '87. I remember wondering: "Where's the gay community?" Because it was really closeted then. There were a lot of gay publications that had people's first names and the first initial of their last name. And I mean, to be in the government and be gay, that was a scary proposition.

I was walking to work one day, down Connecticut Avenue, just south of Dupont Circle. And a bus goes by, and this person leans out the side of the bus and calls me a faggot. And I was like, "Oh, thank God." Even though they got it wrong, at least I'm still gay, and I'm still presenting as gay in this environment, in this cement city, where I didn’t know where the gay community is. I thought, “Thank God, I'm still gay."

But I love D.C., I love it. It's been a wonderful place to spend my life, frankly — a very comfortable place. The food and restaurant world has always been filled with the fringes, so it was a very comfortable [setting]. Restaurants have always been a place where people could be who they are. And so, it was very acceptable to be gay. Now yes, you do have the prejudice and all that, but still, you could be out. It might expose you to harassment, but you could be out still.

And as a lesbian in San Francisco, it was very easy to be out.

And so I was able to come into my own, in a career that had a place for me, that allowed me to be who I was. And that was true here in D.C. for me as well. I wasn't in the government, I didn't have to be in the closet. It was easy to be an out lesbian in the restaurant industry in D.C. MW: And hopefully now it's easier for a lot more people to feel and live that way as well.

GRESSER: I would hope so. I do think it is easier. It's less foreign, so yeah. l Pizzeria Paradiso locations are in Georgetown at 3282 M St. NW (202-337-1245), Dupont Circle at 2003 P St. NW (202-223-1245), Old Town at 124 King St., Alexandria (703-837-1245), Hyattsville at 4800 Rhode Island Ave. (240-467-310), and Spring Valley at 4850 Massachusetts Ave. NW (202-885-9101).

For more on the “United States of Pizza” promotion, including the featured state and pizza of the week, visit www.eatyourpizza.com.

Or follow @eatyourpizza on Twitter.

Ruth Gresser’s Kitchen Workshop-Pizza: Hands-on Cooking Lessons for Making Amazing Pizza at Home is available at www. amazon.com.

Television

Fashionable

CNN’s Halston skirts some of the details along its fantastic voyage into the world of the gay fashion icon. By André Hereford

F

RAMED AS AN AMERICAN SCANDAL OF FASHION, FAME, AND TRAGEDY, Frédéric Tcheng’s playful, occasionally dour documentary Halston (HHHHH) begins by introducing a fictional femme mystérieuse (portrayed by Tavi Gevinson) to investigate the rise and fall of the late designer. It’s a bold but unnecessary move, and the film mostly ditches that pretense early on, save for Gevinson’s effective narration of the glamorous life and times of Roy Halston Frowick.

Making its television debut this week on CNN, Halston homes in on the man behind the clothes and the brand name that he signed away, to his later regret. The brand survives him still, having changed ownership hands a dozen times since he died, but Halston the documentary is only tangentially about the house that Halston built. As every legendary 20th-century fashion designer seems to be having his or her day in a biographical documentary (or two), this one is as much about the fame as it is about the fashion. That Halston drove commerce by embracing the cult of personality might be exactly Tcheng’s statement here. It would appear, based on this portrait, that the man would have accepted, and perhaps approved, of the assessment.

Friends and family provide the film’s insider narration of Halston’s rocketing ascent from custom milliner at Fifth Avenue department store Bergdorf Goodman, to the celebrity ruler of a dazzling fashion and fragrance empire. A witty stylist, he launched his rollercoaster ride to superstardom by creating an indelible hat fashion moment for President Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration. A reporter years later asks Halston, “Were you

the person who put the pillbox on Jackie Kennedy?” He doesn’t miss a beat in replying, “Yes I was.”

The movie shows an artist, approachable but not humble, who relished creating breathtaking moments, as well as being a part of one. Not surprisingly, Halston dives into the disco-fabulous days and nights of Halston’s ’70s glory. He and Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger, and their bubbly pal Liz Taylor, were the most popular clique at Studio 54, the hottest party in the world. Halston and his interior decorating buddy Joel Schumacher, not yet a blockbuster filmmaker, also were living it up on Fire Island, and in the swirl of New York cool that was epitomized

by Halston’s crew of models — Marisa Berenson, Pat Cleveland, Anjelica Huston, Iman, and Elsa Peretti, among them — who came to be known as the Halstonettes.

Alongside this frolicking, frivolous, drug-fueled fantasy, the film strongly conveys that Halston, a perfectionist, worked nearly as hard as he played. And he worked his staff harder, according to just about all of those former employees who appear. He clearly made enemies among

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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the corporate bosses at Esmark, the maker of mass consumer underwear line Playtex with whom he struck an eight-figure deal to sell off his fashion line, with the idea being that he’d maintain creative control. The deal did not work out according to Halston’s plans. Opting for the ostensibly objective “fine people on both sides” approach, the movie allows perhaps too much time for Halston’s Esmark nemesis to characterize their conflict.

But Halston is recalled as a champion, although a fallen one, by those who were closest to him. The film proverbially shields its eyes from the ugliness of drug abuse, which took a devastating toll on Halston’s life, and AIDS, which caused his death. Yet there is real talk from Schumacher and others about how dangerous the designer’s drug habit became. Liza Minnelli, the person most closely associated with the man, in life and even today, is interviewed, and keeps it real by not discussing Halston’s per-

sonal struggles. Refusing in the most Liza way possible to answer interview questions about the drug use of the man she calls her best friend, Minnelli instead sings his praises. And she brings it back to the fashion with one simple image, gushing, “His clothes danced with you!”

Of course, who better to deliver just such a compliment?

Halston has assembled a cast of all the right people — from muses Berenson, Cleveland, and Peretti, to Halston’s loving niece, Lesley Frowick — to explore the film’s fascinating subject.

Though only glancingly does it also explore his relationship with artist and collaborator Victor Hugo, Halston’s lover on and off for a decade and a half. There might be another day and another documentary for the equally intriguing tale of Halston and Hugo, but for now, Tcheng has produced a fittingly revealing and flattering take on an American original. l

FOX SEARCHLIGHT

Halston premieres Sunday, August 25, at 9 p.m. ET and PT on CNN, with encores on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 9 p.m. ET and Sunday, Sept. 1 at 2 a.m. ET. Visit www.cnn.com.

Shotgun Wedding I

The family that preys together stays together in the wickedly suspenseful Ready or Not. By André Hereford

N THE NIFTY, OUT-OF-LEFT-FIELD THRILLER READY OR NOT ( ), new bride Grace (Samara Weaving) loves her groom Alex (Mark O’Brien) enough to overlook the reasonable sense of dread she feels around his outwardly creepy, insanely wealthy family. But she truly has no idea to what insane lengths she’ll be forced to fight for her comfortable seat at the Le Domas clan’s abundant table.

Grace and Alex’s wedding party with the fam at the countryside Le Domas estate quickly degenerates from snarky chuckles over champagne into a gruesome game of Purge-style violence. For good measure, the night is spiked with a shot of the madcap energy of Clue or Neil Simon’s Murder By Death. As in both films, good manners and discretion won’t save the servants from a surprise impaling or two.

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the team behind mostly forgotten 2014 horror Devil’s Due, bite into the bitter comedy of maimings, shotgun beheadings, and bloody mayhem with the aid of cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz’s roving camera

and an especially game cast.

Andie MacDowell plays deliciously against type as Alex’s sweet but stringent mother Becky, who’s happy to welcome Grace into the family if it means having her son back in the fold. And Adam Brody adds a surly undercurrent of brotherly love as Alex’s jaded older sibling, Daniel.

Henry Czerny, as the progressively more perturbed Le Domas patriarch Tony, plays this craziness just the right shade of straight, while Nicky Guadagni, made up to look like the long-lost cousin of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, supplies a hail of dagger stares and gruff commands in her hilarious turn as demented Aunt Helene.

Helene is the staunchest steward of the Le Domas family’s traditions and secrets, although the film seems to side with one character’s view that there is no secret: rich people are just different. And this particular rich family, which might or might not be cursed, takes different to the extreme. Alex simply calls them horrible people, lamenting to Grace that “You’ll do pretty much anything if your family makes you believe it’s okay.” The line sounds astutely and sadly emblematic of an era.

Alex, it turns out, is Ready or Not’s weakest character, and not just because he’s involved in the film’s most implausible escape. Grace, on the other hand, is a powerhouse, and Weaving (niece Matrix star Hugo) gives a wisecracking, actionpacked “final girl” performance to stand with the best of them. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett craft around their Hitchcock blonde a suspenseful mousetrap that’s also a cheeky satire about rich sociopaths who will turn to lawlessly inflicting pain on others, if it keeps their wealth intact. l

Ready or Not is Rated R, and is now playing nationwide. Visit www.fandango.com.

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NIKKO LAMERE

Music

Frayed Connections

Two albums off a hiatus, Sleater-Kinney turns their sound upside-down with help from St. Vincent. By Sean Maunier

N

OBODY COULD HAVE PREDICTED IT IN 2015, BUT SLEATER-KINNEY couldn’t have reunited at a better time. Their fierce, unapologetically political bent, welcome in any era, sounds especially at home in a time when so much seems worse than ever. For the band’s second outing since No Cities to Love, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein are once again joined by their longtime drummer Janet Weiss, who has since abruptly cut professional ties with the pair. Sleater-Kinney will unquestionably be a different band without her drumming, her departure is only one of many ways The Center Won’t Hold (HHHHH) signals an abrupt break with the past. If their comeback album’s success rested on shaking up their sound while preserving the fierce edge that has defined them since their beginnings, its successor follows that same approach — although they don’t so much shake up their sound as upend it completely.

The surreal, at times pop-like tone of the album, strikingly different from anything else in the Sleater-Kinney catalogue, owes much to production by St. Vincent, who leaves dreamy synths, industrial beats, and perky new wave riffs scattered throughout.

This mashup of two starkly different musical styles may be odd on paper, but the actual results are magical, in large part due to Annie Clark’s almost preternatural ability for crafting a soundscape for a given track to inhabit. Her handprint can be felt on the two guitar-heavy opening tracks, but it is the third track “Reach Out,” with its synths and bopping bass line, that stands as the first indicator of Clark’s enormous influence on the album.

As much as The Center Won’t Hold’s production is a radical departure from the

more raw sound of their earlier work, they are still recognizably Sleater-Kinney.

Clark’s production complements and elevates Tucker and Brownstein’s brilliant guitarwork and Weiss’ drumming, rather than upstaging them. Guitars layer perfectly over synths on tracks like “The Dog/ The Body” and the downtempo ballad “Restless,” although they are almost lost amidst the production on “LOVE.” At its core, The Center Won’t Hold is preoccupied with human connection, threatened on all sides by modernity, politics, and the passage of time itself.

Although Sleater-Kinney are reckoning with a world on fire, hopelessness and angst creep in as well. Their trademark righteous anger is balanced with heavy doses of introspection, and the effect is chilling and even disquieting at times. The deceptively upbeat track “Can I Go On” sardonically rails against our shared modern anxieties, neatly capturing the pervasive burnout and alienation of late-capitalist life. Brownstein, who leads the vocals on this track, takes aim at technology, which she presents as a kind of toxic false connection that pressures her to conceal the very darkness it engenders. “Everyone I know is napping,” she sings, bemoaning the collective exhaustion that has reduced her friends to power-nappers, inadvertently leaving each other to experience

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NIKKO LAMERE

their existential crises alone and in silence.

Dread aside, it wouldn’t be Sleater-Kinney without a healthy dose of clear-eyed anger as well. While it is often directed at external targets, they are willing to turn that anger inward as well, as they do on “Hurry On Home,” an intense, desperate breakup song that finds Brownstein rattle off her insecurities and her desire to be ripped out of her own body before bringing the song to a close, frantically repeating the line, “You got me used

to loving you” — as much an accusation as it is an admission.

While The Center Won’t Hold is in some ways retrospective, it actively resists trading on nostalgia for their past work. Rejecting any starry-eyed romantic view of the past is a recurring theme of the album, and it gets a reprise on “RUINS,” a powerful, bile-filled song addressed to a demon “both ancient and new” whose identity is left ambiguous, but calling it “the beast we made” gives some hints. Among other accusations, Brownstein asks, “Do you feast on nostalgia?/Take pleasure from pain?” Asking both those questions in the same breath puts the ideas into the same box, and Sleater-Kinney are sincerely hoping the answer to both is a resounding no.

Sleater-Kinney doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, or even a semblance of a roadmap out of our collective slow-rolling catastrophe. But they remind us that if we decide to stay awake and furious, and rage at the madness together, we will at least be in good company. l

The Center Won’t Hold can be purchased at www.Amazon.com and iTunes, and is available on most major streaming services.

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AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Scene

Dirty Goose’s 3rd Anniversary - Saturday, Aug. 17 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Thursday, August 22 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets of Bud Products all night • Sports Leagues Night NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla, 11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Dancing until 1:30am

Destinations A LEAGUE OF HER OWN 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.facebook.com/alohodc

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers, 9pm-close • “New Meat” Open Dancers Audition • Music by DJ Don T. • Cover 21+

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR 555 23rd St. S. Arlington, Va. 703-685-0555 www.freddiesbeachbar.com

AVALON SATURDAYS Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW 202-789-5429 www.facebook.com/ AvalonSaturdaysDC 32

Friday, August 23

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

GREEN LANTERN 1335 Green Ct. NW 202-347-4533 www.greenlanterndc.com

NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine

only $5 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

Saturday, August 24 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW Pool Boy, featuring DJs Shane Marcus and Brett Oosterhaus, 10pm-4am

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR 900 U St. NW 202-332-6355 www.nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE 1435 P St. NW 202-986-0999 www.numberninedc.com PITCHERS 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.pitchersbardc.com

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Doug Rule

PITCHERS DRAG PICNIC You have options galore around town if you want to sashay away to a weekend brunch with drag queens. But only Pitchers offers the rather novel idea of a drag picnic, every second and fourth Saturday of the month. Brooklyn Heights hosts the feast and show starting “PROMPTLY” at 1 p.m. You don’t need to pack your own basket, as food from the venue’s menu will be available along with drinks at the bar. The next picnic is this Saturday, Aug 24. Pitchers is at 2317 18th St. NW. Call 202-733-2568 or visit www.pitchersdc. eventbrite.com to make reservations.

• $15 Cover, $20 Cover for VIP • Drink specials • Drag Show, 10:3011:30pm, hosted by Ba’Naka and a rotating cast of drag queens • $4 Absolut Vodka Drinks, 10pm-midnight • 21+ • Visit www.

DougieMeyerPresents.com FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • JOX: The GL Underwear Party, 9pm-close • Music by DJs Chaim, UltraPup, and

Pup Phoenix • $5 cover (includes clothes check) NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs playing pop music all night NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Jawbreaker: Music of the 1990s and 2000s, featuring DJs BacK2bACk, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full

SHAW’S TAVERN 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 www.shawstavern.com TRADE 1410 14th St. NW 202-986-1094 www.tradebardc.com ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS 1824 Half St. SW 202-863-0670 www.ziegfelds.com

SECRETS GOES COUNTRY The DC Rawhides showcase their boot-scootin’ brand of social dancing every other Saturday on both floors of the Ziegfeld’s/ Secrets complex in Southwest. Starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24, the group presents two hour-long lessons running simultaneously, with Chris S. teaching the beginner’s line dance “Lonely Drum” on the Ziegfeld’s level and Anthony guiding advanced line dancers in “Hold Your Horses” on the second-floor Secrets level.

That’s followed at 8 p.m. with a two-step tutorial for beginners and open dancing to the music of Rawhides DJ Tom for nearly three hours, ending at 10:50 p.m. to make way for the legendary, long-running Ladies of Illusion drag show led by the venue’s matriarch, Ella Fitzgerald. By then, you’ll also find fully exposed “freestyle” dancers and their admirers shaking it to house music upstairs, if you’d like to see and do it all. (And if you’re age 21 or older.) Ziegfeld’s/Secrets is at 1824 Half St. SW. Cover is $5 until 9 p.m.; $10 after. Call 202-863-0670 or visit www.dcrawhides.com or www.ziegfelds.com.

OVEREASY TEA DANCE Starting at 3 p.m. this Sunday, Aug. 25, @WhereTheGirlsGo offers another round of its midday-to-dusk party intended to “celebrate summer with your favorite grrlz, boiz, friendz, and neighbz.”

Wander from the venue’s patio to the back deck if you prefer to party sunny side up. Otherwise, DJs Junebullet, Krptk, and Deejay India will heat things up on the dance floor by scrambling the hits with classic jams. The monthly OverEasy is a 21-and-up party designed to be “a trans-positive, all-gender-inclusive, anti-racist, pro-makeout space.” No cover. Dodge City is located at 917 U St. NW. Call 202-588-9080 or visit www.facebook.com/DodgeCityDC. CHUNK DC Launched a dozen years ago in Toronto, the popular traveling #ChunkParty for “bubbas, bears, and babes” — one that values “diversity and equity of every kind” as well “body positivity” — comes to D.C. for an evening of “free hugs, cuddle piles,” and dancing at the Dew Drop Inn. D.C.’s most versatile and popular DJ Keenan Orr will be spinning some hot hits and plus-size beats along with Chunk’s own DJ Cakes. Smiffy, Caleb, and Jaxknife will serve as hosts for a party that also promises “hot gogo bears all night long.” Friday, Aug. 23, starting at 10 p.m. The Dew Drop Inn, 2801 8th St. NE. Tickets are $10 in advance, more (if available) at the door. Call 202-791-0909 or visit www.facebook.com/chunkparty. l

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $15 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 2pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s •

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Doors open at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm • Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Ella’s Sunday Drag Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Gayborhood Night Piano Bar with John Flynn, 5-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close • No Cover

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover

Sunday, August 25

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner and Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • No Cover • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@gmail.com TRADE Doors open 2pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $5

Monday, August 26

Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm • PokerFace Poker, 8pm •

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with Jeremy, 7:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Tuesday, August 27 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and

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Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close

Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas, 5-10pm

NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5

PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers •

Wednesday, August 28 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 Burgers • Beach Blanket Drag Bingo Night, hosted

by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm • Bear Yoga with Greg Leo, 6:30-7:30pm • $10 per class • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8-10pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • $15 Buckets of Beer for SmartAss Teams only • Absolutely Snatched Drag

Show, hosted by Brooklyn Heights, 9pm • Tickets available at www.nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas

and Select Appetizers • Piano Bar and Karaoke with Jill, 8pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • Women’s Crush Wednesdays: A Monthly Happy Hour for LBT women, non-gender-conforming and nonbinary folx, 5-10pm l

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“There is no world where I can sit down at the dining room table and explain to my children that I just endorsed Donald Trump for president.”

— JENNIFER HORN, former board member of Log Cabin Republicans, speaking to the Washington Post about resigning from the LGBTQ organization after its board voted to endorse Donald Trump for reelection in 2020. “I think that the effort to offer a Republican voice that is contrary to the president is an important one, not just to the party but for our country.

People have to know, our party is dying because of the silence of those who oppose this president.”

“Parents are definitely going to have to deal with a growing LGBT presence in children’s media.”

— VeggieTales creator PHIL VISCHER, speaking to the Christian Post about the “concerning” inclusion of LGTBQ characters and storylines in children’s media. “It’s going to show up more and more as the world has decided that LGBT issues are in the same categories as race and civil rights issues. So to say you shouldn’t have a same-sex couple on Sesame Street is the equivalent of saying you shouldn’t have a black couple on Sesame Street.”

“I told you that the church could not allow you to live in unrepentant disobedience without addressing it. ”

— BARRY BAKER, pastor of Gracewood Baptist Church in Southaven, Miss., in a letter to Mary Catherine Trollinger telling her that the church had voted to revoke Trollinger and her wife Olivia’s membership following their wedding.

Baker called their union “an unbiblical lifestyle” and told Trollinger they could only return “upon your request and evidence of repentance and reformation.”

“I’m very similar to how they are, even though I think my dad voted for Trump.”

— U.S. women’s national soccer team player MEGAN RAPINOE, speaking with the Guardian about her parents.

Rapinoe said that though her parents taught her about equality and should be progressive, they’re not.

“I’ll say: ‘I don’t get it. How are you simultaneously as proud as punch of me, and watching Fox News all the time, [who are doing] takedowns of your daughter?’”

“People in glass houses...”

— PETE BUTTIGIEG, responding to news that Donald Trump had fat-shamed one of his own supporters after mistaking him for a protester. He added: “Look, nobody should fat-shame anybody, but certainly, I mean, I’m not even gonna say it. Nobody should fat-shame anybody.”

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AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

AUGUST 22, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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